The present invention relates to time record systems. More particularly, the invention relates to an automated system for maintaining employee time records to permit improved and more efficient payroll processing than has been available heretofore at reasonable cost.
Government regulations and union contracts require employers to maintain permanent employee attendance records from which employee payrolls are computed. The attendance record keeping and payroll determining process occurs either manually or through an automated system, sequentially in the following general steps:
(1) Each employee keeps a daily record (called raw time data) of arrival time, departure time and, depending on circumstances, lunch out and lunch return time. Usually this record is a time card, imprinted (generally electromechanically) by a time clock.
(2) At the end of each pay period, the completed employee time cards are collected, and the hours for which each employee is to be paid (i.e. payroll hours) is computed, usually by the payroll processing clerk(s), in accordance with established employer policy for rounding time (e.g., to the nearest quarter of an hour), tardiness penalty, and overtime determination.
(3) Computed totals of payroll hours for each employee, segregated between regular and overtime hours, are transcribed onto a listing for payroll preparation.
(4) Payroll checks based on payroll hours are prepared from a listing of the payroll in form appropriate for accounting entry into the employer's books and records. This last step is often done by computer, either in-house, or through a payroll service bureau, payroll hours generally being entered into the computer manually.
Since about the 1880's, the vast majority of businesses have kept employee raw time data by time cards and electromechanical time clocks. Such clocks have a slot into which an employee time card may be inserted. A permanent record of the time of insertion is then printed on the card by the printer located inside the time clock housing. The vast majority of time clocks in use today have no other capability than to keep time and to record time on a card inserted into the appropriate slot.
Recently, sophisticated microcomputer based time clocks have been developed to record and summarize the raw time employee data for subsequent direct input to a computerized payroll processing system. One such computerized payroll processing time clock is manufactured by Kronos Inc., of Boston, Mass. Other similar integrated raw time data processing clocks are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,341,852 (Kramer et al), U.S. Pat. No. 3,740,759 (McKeegan et al), U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,215 (Lotter et al) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,015 (Elliano et al). All of such known computer based time clocks are shown as integrated units which are intended to replace an existing electromechanical time clock. Microcomputer based time clocks on the market today cost in the neighborhood of several thousand dollars and require the user to replace what is often an otherwise entirely suitable piece of equipment.
The cost of replacing existing electromechanical time clocks with the new computerized time clocks is prohibitive for the small or medium-sized employer, in particular. Therefore, for the majority of businesses, card imprinted time data is still being manually processed by tedious, time consuming, and costly clerical labor. Inherent in such manual processing is the possibility of human error being introduced at one or more of the manual processing steps.